EDITORIAL: Keep ATVs off-road

By Enterprise editorial staff

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, March 19, 2014

All-terrain vehicles can be a great way to get around forests and fields, but there is one place they really don't belong: on paved roads designated for cars and trucks. Unfortunately, there is a growing movement in some places to open more roads to ATVs despite the rising number of accidents that trend has brought.

An ATV weighs only a fraction of a car or truck, and its occupants are not protected. Basic physics can predict what happens when a smaller and larger vehicle collide, especially at a high rate of speed. Some type of injury is almost inevitable, and a fatality is not unthinkable.

It's one thing for an ATV to get on a road - or its shoulder - briefly to get from one camp site or beach to another.

It's an entirely different matter for an ATV to be on that road for an extended period of time, tempting fate. It's simply not safe, and those in power should not encourage it.